Iraq officials: Kidnapped lawmaker released

Sunni Arab woman held for nearly two months

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BAGHDAD, Iraq — Kidnapped Sunni lawmaker Tayseer al-Mashhadani was released Saturday after being held for nearly two months, an adviser to the prime minister and a senior official from her party said.

Al-Mashhadani and seven of her bodyguards were seized July 1 by gunmen in a Shiite area of east Baghdad as they were traveling from nearby Diyala province to attend a parliament session the following day.

Adviser Yassin Majeed and Alaa Makki, a legislator and senior Iraqi Islamic Party official, both said she was released. “She was released. Thank God,” Makki told The Associated Press.

No group claimed responsibility publicly for the abduction, but officials said a group alleging to hold her had demanded the release of Shiite detainees. The demands appeared to confirm Sunni suspicions that she was taken by a Shiite militia, in one of many recent attacks aiming to stoke sectarian tensions.